2022 – State Runner Up after losing a pitchers duel versus Appomattox in the State Championship game.
Head Coach Alan Knight captured State Championships in 2014, 2015 and 2018 with the middle one being the focus for the book 📖.. But there are just as many close calls over the years for the Lady 👩 Panthers.
The team has made it to the State Tournament in three of the last four years with the setback taking place in a different round each time.
The Lady Panthers advanced all the way to the Championship game back in 2022 before falling to Appomattox.
In 2023, it was eventual State Champ 🏆 Tazewell that knocked out Page County in the State semifinals.
After falling in the Regional semifinals in 2024 to Central – Woodstock, Page County returned to the Big Stage in 2025. State runner up King William ended the season in the quarterfinal round.
Maddie Gordon played a HUGE role in the 2018 State title in her Freshman year at PCHS and losing a season to Covid kept her from matching the pair of State Championships of older Sister, Kate.
This past season Gordon was one of four former Lady Panthers who performed at the collegiate level.
Teammates down at CokerRoanoke College
Four players playing at the next level shows the level of commitment that the players have to the game of Softball and the Page County program.
The gathering of information about the two programs and the effects from that day in June 2015 will be ongoing for months. If you are connected to either program and have a story to share, please reach out !
Carroll County High School Softball had five coaches and 15 players that are officially listed on the team that captured the first ever State Championship back in 2015. Each person on the roster contributed to the landmark victory.
The team as a group is in the CCHS Hall of Fame as well as two of the coaches and four of the players
2015 State 🏆🏆🏆
Varsity Head Coach Rick Nester is still at the helm of the program a decade later but sadly Assistant Coach Jeff Tobler has passed away, with his untimely death taking place last December. The duo coached side by side in a number of situations across the partnership which ended way to soon.
David Quesenberry was part of the staff and worked with the pitching, one of the unquestionable strengths that was magnified by the thrilling 1-0 victory in the title game at Liberty University.
Edwin Tompkins and Cindy Edwards led the Junior Varsity team that season and Edwards is still the Varsity Volleyball 🏐 Coach at Carroll County. Edwards is closing in on 500 victories during her time on The Hill.
The 15 players include four young Ladies that have been voted into the Hall of Fame after their time competing as Lady Cavaliers. Emily Cook was a Freshman Pitcher as was Sidney Nester. The other two were Senior leaders, centerfielder Tiffanie Moore and Shortstop Cheyenne Strickland.
The next group of four were Junior Varsity players that were called up for the post season. Alexis Meredith, Katie McKenzie, Jeannie Utt and Elizabeth Combs. It was Utt that entered the Championship game as a pinch runner 🏃♂️ and came around to score the games only run on the famous ” Pickle Play “. Utt was a sophomore while the other three were freshman.
The balance of the starting lineup included Seniors, Hannah Dalton and Sydney Childress and Juniors, Morgan Tompkins, Gracie Davidson and Kayla Robinson. Sophomores Caitlin Horton and Kendall Hiatt completed the squad.
One of the things to remember is that when you move forward a decade a number of the maiden names have changed after the players became married. One easy one to see is that Alexis Meredith went on to become Alexis Dalton and just finished up her stint as the Junior Varsity Head Coach.
One of the questions that come up when a State Championship game is won is how many horses 🐎 does it take to accomplish the feat ?
Present Day Cavalier Park
I have been fortunate enough to get to meet up with two of the said Horses involved in winning the crown 👑, Moore and Nester. Moore at the family home in Dugspur and Nester during her final season at Marshall University.
Now we know the list of players and coaches that teamed up to secure the initial State Championship for Carroll County High School. The part of the process that will be interesting as we go forward is to figure out how many people are interested in participating in the creation of the story about what happened 10 years ago ???
Carroll County and Page County shared a magical day a decade ago. On the Lady Cavaliers side of things it was a first and nobody should ever forget their first !
Another layer to the story, ” Diamonds 💎 are a Girls Best Friend ” comes in the form of there being a Wedding 💒 taking place later in the day back in Carroll County. The Nester family and the Goins family were set to become one large family 👪 that evening.
Adam and Kayla just celebrated their 10th anniversary and are the proud parents of three beautiful children. Both parents are involved with Coaching on The Hill and Adam just finished winning his initial Three Rivers District crown 👑 with his Junior Varsity Baseball team.
Kayla Nester is about to add Volleyball to her responsibilities with Basketball and we need to mention that little Sister, Raylee Goins is a current member of the Lady Cavaliers Softball program.
Part of the story has to be the time from the final out was recorded until Adam & Kayla said I do as Coach Nester worked his way back home in time for the ceremony.
Where are they now, ten years later, will be included with anyone who is interested in joining the conversation.
Nancy Sorrels while once again be involved with the book 📖 making process and this is exciting news for us. Her group up in Raphine were an absolute delight to work with. This will be the fourth time that we have taken a story from a High School and expanded it but its the first time that it will involve two Schools in the same story.
The first three efforts
Page County High School captured its seventh State Championship game that day in 2015, with six of them belonging to Coach Knight. Carroll County captured the first Crown 👑 in the history of the School that opened back in 1969.
If you are just joining us on this project, we will spend the next few months gathering all of the information we can and then create a time-line that will walk people through the entire 40+ year relationship with the game of Softball.
Cool Hat that Big Daddy is wearing there alongside Coach Knight!
Tammy Quesenberry offered some great insight as to how things changed at our Cavalier Park after the Lady 👩 Cavaliers Softball team won 🏆the first State Championship in the history of Carroll County High School.
Throughout the story here, both Alan F Knight Field and Cavalier Park are front and center. The background stories are truly important here because they were also forty years in the making. Back in 1981 Alan Knight returned to his High School that he graduated 🎓 from five years earlier and all Coach inherited was a back stop.
The part of that side of the story is Page County High School captured the 1981 State Championship without the benefit of a home field! Cavalier Park was in place before June 13, 2015 but the start of the beautiful face-lift began shortly after.
Vickey Ritchie also contributed today with the sharing of a video from back then the day the town celebrated the landmark Championship.
Now, if anyone has documentation of the critters housing under the portable restrooms 🚻, that would be priceless!
The beauty of the Book 📖 to be titled ” Diamonds 💎 are a Girls Best Friend ” will include so many stories told by anyone who remembers the day back in June 2015!
The line up card is a big part of Softball at any level and back on June 13, 2015 both Alan Knight and Rick Nester filled one out and turned it into the home plate umpire at the pre-game meeting.
The difference between the two is that Coach Nester handed his over to Frank Comer of Page County. Comer is a life-long resident of Shenandoah, Virginia and has taught at Page County High School 🏫 for decades. Comer took up officiating along the way as a means of supplementing his income and like everything else he applied himself to, he excelled at it.
Comer and Knight have shared a workspace at PCHS since they started in the business of educating our youth back in the 1980’s and are still close friends today. Both still live in the same homes and work at the same school but back on our red letter date 📅 10 years ago, they were on different Softball diamonds 💎.
The fact that Comer is one of the few people that play crossover roles in this story ( Coach Knight and myself as well), isn’t above the fold News but what happened after the Lady Cavaliers captured their first State Championship in school history remains a part of the story 10 years later.
Whether you are an umpire or a head coach or a sportswriter, once a ball game is over, you have various levels of notes 📝 to dispose of. Comer returned from Liberty University to Shenandoah with the Carroll County lineup card in his pocket.
Comer took the time to research how to get the momento back to CCHS and added a page long note with it. Just the fact that we have a hand written letter makes it an antique! The fact that Comer mentioned Coach Knight in the letter adds a layer to it as well.
On a personal note, I am a big fan of Frank Comer and when its time to work on his part in the story, I will go backwards to the early days on my sites and dig up stories about him as a Coach for Page County High as well.
There’s nothing earth shattering in it, no nuclear launch codes. Just one lifetime Coach and Official taking the time to acknowledge the efforts of another lifetime Coach.
The fact that it was available to me today, ten years later, should explain what it means to the receiver of said message. Just a random act of kindness can go a long way to someone else !!
There will be a bus load of people that will be part of this story, Frank Comer is just one of them. The story will contain 40 years of a relationship with the game of Softball, two High School coaches that are in their five decade of leadership with all of it taking place at just one school. Two facilities that we have played a role in upgrading over the years and plenty of remarkable young Ladies that have worn the uniforms for the Lady Cavaliers and the Lady Panthers.
The road less traveled ! 